US-based college professor advocates new ministry to help build workforce for oil sector
A United States-based Guyanese college professor is advocating the establishment of a Ministry of Employment and Training Service (METS) in Guyana to help create a cadre of trained local personnel to respond to the needs of the country’s oil & gas sector and the wider Guyana economy.
Associate Professor of Mathematics at the Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York, Dr Terrence Richard Blackman writes in an article published in the most recent edition of OilNow, a Guyanese-owned Information and Resource Centre that provides regular updates on developments in the country’s oil & gas sector, that such a ministry “will
With successive political administrations in Guyana having made several failed attempts at improving the country’s trading links with the rest of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the present government is reportedly having yet another try at improving trading links with the region, according to a March 27 Caribbean Business Report story which hints at the likelihood of yet another attempt to do so.
The latest initiative which the Report says comes on the back of concerns expressed by President Irfaan Ali late last work with business and industry, particularly the emerging oil and gas sector, to build a trained and prepared workforce by providing employment and training services to Guyanese and Guyanese businesses.”
Professor Blackman envisages such a ministry operating “a countrywide online labor exchange system that would connect job seekers and employers in each of the 10 regions.” Specifically, he sees the ministry overseeing and administering “Job Centers across the country to assist job seekers with employment-related services.” Such Job Centers, he says, “would also support employers by providing outreach year about issues affecting intra-regional trade, asserts that the PPP/C administration will be seeking to make strides towards removing barriers affecting intraregional trade in collaboration with the country’s private sector.
There has been region-wide concern over what is felt to be the ineffectiveness of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) which, in theory at least, allows for the free intra-regional movement of goods and services across the member countries of CARICOM. and recruitment services and providing information on pathways to employment for the general public.”
Dr Blackman also envisages a local METS providing specialised initiatives “aimed at integrating women, rural youth, and indigenous populations, into Guyana’s economic mainstream” and “developing approaches flexible enough to respond to emerging industries” and to “identify solutions for workforce issues on an ongoing basis.” Further, he anticipates that the ministry will “meet the needs of employers, communities and the nation.”
Asserting that preparing a qualified workforce is the essential function of the country’s educational system, Blackman writes that “tomorrow’s careers, particularly those in the emerging oil and gas sector will require advanced skills and more flexibility than ever.” Accordingly, he contends that policies must also “facilitate industry-driven training and educational programmes focused on providing Guyanese youth, women and Guyanese in rural areas [with] preparation for Guyanese jobs.”
And in order to meet the country’s workforce needs, Dr Blackman is recommending the adoption of a “three-tiered approach” that would include “amplifying and refining existing Secondary School programmes that connect youth with career pathways and help them prepare for the academic and other rigors that lead to
Guyana taking another tilt at improving trade relations with the region
workforce participation.” The Guyanese academic is also advocating that the country develop “academic certificate and degree programmes that prepare students, with particular emphasis on women, for careers in critical Guyanese employment sectors; and prioritizing professional development courses that provide continuing education targeted at rural youth and women.”
“We must be purposeful as we identify workforce development priorities through labor market information, institutional data, and industry feedback, to support and develop programs countrywide,” Dr Blackman writes.
Over time, major differences have arisen between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago over Guyanese exports to the twin-island republic. Back in September 2019 “technical experts” from Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, sat down in Port-of-Spain to discuss issues relating to the importation of agricultural produce from Guyana into Trinidad and Tobago in the wake of numerous reports of Guyanese exporters facing difficulties when targeting markets in the twin-island Republic.
A report emanating from that meeting disclosed that the two sides had discussed challenges which Guyanese exporters had been experiencing in their efforts to get clearance from the authorities in Port of Spain. That engagement reportedly extended into discussions regarding the prohibition of the transshipment through Trinidad and Tobago of honey produced in Guyana and bound for other Caribbean territories as well as a reported ban on the importation into Trinidad and Tobago of poultry meat from Guyana. Whether the two countries eventually arrived at an understanding on these issues is unclear.
Speaking on the outcome of the recent encounter with Port of Spain, one-time holder of the ministerial portfolios for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Robert Persaud, who was appointed to the position of Foreign Secretary after the PPP/C returned to office in August last year, is quoted by Caribbean Business Report as saying that during the two meetings held by the committee set up to address the broader issue of intra-regional trade issues, barriers were pinpointed “product by product and country by country and suggestions raised with regard to how these could be settled” and that
“work has been making some progress in the sense that we were able to engage a number of countries bilaterally and we will continue to do that.” Persaud is also reported to have said that Guyana had already received responses from Barbados but that there is some sloth on the part of Trinidad. “We have seen some significant interest in having these issues addressed by other states and we hope that Trinidad and Tobago would itself address and correct that very soon, all in the spirit of regional integration,” Persaud reportedly added.
The Foreign Secretary, according to the Caribbean Business Report, identified poultry as one of the commodities from Guyana banned from importation into Trinidad and Tobago, a circumstance which Persaud is quoted as saying was the result of a virus detected in ducks originating in neighbouring Suriname.